Omar’s New Squeeze 1

Believe it or not, I don’t kowtow to the fans often. Omar’s appearances in this strip are usually decided weeks, if not months, in advance. But it is weird to see that people enjoy his character as much as they do.

And yeah, go Omar!

As of typing this, the furlough continues.

At what point do we, the people, just say Enough is Enough, and openly revolt?

At what point do the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street converge into one knotted mass of disenfranchised voters?

At what point OH HEY GUYS LET’S WATCH NETFLIX.

Speaking of entertaining distractions, if you aren’t listening to Welcome To Night Vale, you are missing out. This is absolutely superb, fucked-up humor. It’s free. If you’re reading this website, you can listen to Night Vale. Make sure to start with the first episode.

Here’s the fun question; if I honestly and truly believe we have too much government, which I do, why would I want to revolt when the government officials have blundered into the one action which they haven’t tried in about 20-30 years? Shut down the government by reducing its staffing levels of 20-30%? Given that the size and scope of government has expanded by over 100% in the past 13 years, that’s peanuts. Nice try to scare me, Mr. politician, now do what you always do, when that doesn’t work try it again…. Please?

I’d not mind shutting down the idiotic and destructive aspects of De Gummint if, in return, we could get the useful stuff back. Things like NASA, for instance.

Actually, now I think about it, the useful and efficient functions of government generally cost a tiny fraction of the big, ugly, noisy things that only bring fear and death. Probably a lesson in that.

There’s a problem with that kind of horse trading. Everything is a sacred cow to someone else.

I love NASA. I was a huge space geek when I was young. I wanted to go to space. Fuck it, give me the chance now and I’d go, no doubt about it. I think that space exploration is one of the greatest achievements we, as a species, have done and we should be doing more of. I honestly think it is fucked up that we’re going to run out of living examples of humans who have set foot on the moon long before repeat that venture! Utter, complete, total madness!

And yet the majority of NASA being furloughed is ok with me. In fact, if I limit myself to just using the same letters, I’ll happily and gladly defund NASA this second if it also means the NSA goes, too. Want to know why?

Because I can still voluntarily contribute to whatever ventures will get us to the Moon, and beyond, without having the majority of those contributions syphoned off to pay for invading my privacy.

I am willing to sacrifice every sacred cow of mine if the result that the evil perpetuated by government is also eliminated. Because if I do not hold on to any sacred cows, then the other guy doesn’t get to, either.

NASA is an interesting case. There was a time when I believe they were legitimately necessary as part of the Federal government. However, many of their roles are increasingly possible for private ventures to perform. This is especially true when every time they start working on a next generation of manned spacecraft, it gets defunded 5 years later. In short, I think they are past their heyday; if I had a choice, I’d convert them into essentially a coordinating and safety role for private space missions, similar to the FAA.

The problem isn’t that they’ve furloughed some government workers – It’s that is appears they’ve deliberately furloughed many of those parts of government that people like</I whilst leaving the rest more-or-less alone.*

Government monuments which are normally free to walk through 24/7/365, barricaded? Why? The only reason that comes to my mind is a temper-tantrum by the government. Why are foreign aid payments continuing? The DoD has recalled hundreds of thousands of workers…

Meanwhile, the government is *spending money* to kick folks out of their privately-owned businesses and cabins which happen to be located in Federal parks.

The Grand Canyon is a National Park. As such it is closed. The State of Arizona has offered to pay all costs of operation and maintenance during the shutdown, in order to have it reopened. The Administration has refused. It simply wants to emphasize the bad at any price.

If Omar’s squeeze used to be a guy, I think he’s probably 90% over it at this point.

Get this crap.
I was offered a BADLY-needed job, in a field I enjoy and am comfortable in, about an hour before the gov. shutdown.
By the time I was able to reply, the outfit had gone from a hiring posture to considering layoffs.
…Turns out they receive government funding.
……….Fuck me with a screwdriver.
Do me a favor, everybody cross your fingers the job re-appears when congress gets its shit together.
I’d appreciate it.

What we see here is a conflict of these two maxims. For the first time in modern history, people are both miserable and comfortable. It’s possible to be both fat and poor. We get to see which maxim wins.

I read this earlier from my phone, so that’s my excuse for why I couldn’t see all the detail, like Omar still wearing one side of the handcuffs! O.O *That* escalated quickly!

As far as the shutdown goes: the longer this goes on, the more surprised I am that they haven’t shut down the Interstate Highway system, claiming that “the king’s roads” are being used in interstate commerce, which they must regulate by shutting that down too, lest some rogue smuggle contraband across state lines!

We rise up and openly revolt every couple of years at elections, theoretically. Those things where fewer than a fifth of those eligible show up? I’m not convinced that hinky voter laws and gerrymandering can overcome everyone showing up.